Christy O'Connor on what Harty Cup success would mean to Cork hurling

In the Dr Harty Cup, Liam Ó Donnchú’s tome released in December, Paudie O’Sullivan neatly illustrates how much Midleton CBS’s Harty Cup title in 2006 meant to him and all his team-mates.

Still only 17, O’Sullivan had been building up to that point for what felt like all of his young life. As the youngest of five boys, he grew up watching his four older brothers getting their chance to wear the school jersey. O’Sullivan was only six when his brother Diarmuid won a Harty medal in 1995.

Midleton certainly won that 2006 title the hard way. After beating a Templemore team led by Noel McGrath in the quarter-final, they overcame a Thurles CBS side powered by Pádraic Maher in the semi-final. 

The St Flannan’s outfit they faced in the final had a sprinkling of the team that had won the previous year’s Harty and All-Ireland colleges title. Flannan’s looked on course for back-to-back Harty titles at half time when leading by 0-9 to 1-1. 

The game would have probably been beyond Midleton’s reach if goalkeeper Ciaran Cronin hadn’t made a brilliant save just before the break.

Midleton though, were a transformed team in the second half, outscoring Flannan’s by 1-7 to 0-3. Winning the game was even more of a dream for O’Sullivan because he was the captain.

“It’s one of the greatest honours I have ever had in my life,” said O’Sullivan in Ó Donnchú’s book. “I still look back on that year and think of the enjoyment we had during that year and made memories we will all take to our graves.

“The Dr Harty Cup is, without question, my favourite competition I’ve ever played in — and that still holds true to this day. If you could make it in Harty, you could make it anywhere.” 

The competition has long been a breeding ground and rite of passage for platoons of ambitious young hurlers. Even the name itself has always had a near mythical status because of the emotions the Harty Cup triggers.

The competition has always had the capacity to invade the hearts and minds of those far beyond the playing pitch, the emotions getting stronger with every step for young First Year students as they build themselves up to play in the competition, inspired by those that have gone before them, stimulated and energised by the halcyon photos on the walls of the corridors, driven by a desire to one day reside in a timeless picture beside their illustrious predecessors.

As well as the experience of the competition hothousing players for bigger tests to come at inter-county level, success in the competition is also a conduit for more productive days for those counties on the bigger stage.

STEPPING STONE

The trends and patterns have always proven as much, especially for Cork in the past 50 years. 

The success of St Finbarr’s Farranferris in the early 1970s, North Monastery in the early 1980s, and 1994, Midleton CBS in 1988 and 1995, St Colman’s Fermoy in the 1990s and the early 2000s produced huge numbers of players that went on to win All-Ireland senior medals with Cork.

Midleton’s success in 2006 was Cork’s fourth title in six years as St Colman’s had won three-in-row between 2001-’03. 

The fact that a Cork college has only won one Harty in the meantime – when Midleton were victorious against CBC in 2019 – has been a factor in Cork’s struggles in the last two decades. 

Especially when compared with the dual-success of other colleges/counties in the intervening years.

Ardscoil Rís’s emergence as a modern hurling superpower was critical to Limerick’s modern success. 

Six players which featured in the 2018 All-Ireland final - Declan Hannon, Shane Dowling, Cian Lynch, Aaron Gillane, Mikey and Peter Casey – had also bagged Harty’s with Ardscoil.

Ardscoil had never won a Harty prior to 2010 but they’d bagged five titles by 2018. 

The power base in recent years has shifted to Tipperary, which has already transferred to the senior county team. Oisin O’Donoghue won a Harty Cup with Cashel Community College in 2023. Darragh McCarthy was part of the Nenagh CBS side that also won the title in 2024. 

Thurles CBS made it three-in-a-row for Tipperary in 2025. Nenagh CBS are favourites for this year’s competition.

Nenagh meet Midleton now in Wednesday’s quarter-final. Midleton are the only Cork side in the last eight but numbers are misleading too. 

If Gaelcholáiste Mhuire had got a draw against Our Lady’s Templemore in their last game, there would be two Cork and two Tipperary schools in the last eight as opposed to three Tipp and one Cork. Gaelcholáiste looked set to qualify when leading by two points in the 56th minute but Templemore caught them with a late surge.

Cork would expected to have done better in the Harty across the last two decades better but there are positive signs that a Cork team will win a Harty in the near future.

Three Cork schools have reached the Dean Ryan final (U17) in the last two years, with Midleton CBS beating Gaelcholáiste Mhuire in the 2024 final, while CBC were narrowly beaten by Ardscoil in the 2025 final in December.

It would be extremely unlikely for any other county to have three different teams in successive Dean Ryan finals. 

Cork have the numbers that other counties don’t but that progress at Dean Ryan level is also reflective of the developmental work being done across the county, which was further underlined by Cork’s Munster minor success last year.

Cork’s hunt for another coveted Harty title is now in Midleton’s hands. 

Nenagh CBS will present a huge challenge on Wednesday but Midleton showed 20 years ago – when they were really up against the odds – that anything is possible in the Harty Cup.